EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION STRATEGY:
Azores Regional Civil Protection and
Fire Service
ABOUT
On November 21st, 2010, The Regional
Secretariat for Science, Technology and
Infrastructures, through the Azores Regional
Civil Protection and Fire Service, carried out
project Icarus, an exercise designed to test
the capabilities of government emergency
services in the case of major disaster. Held
on Terceira Island, the exercise simulated
the technical malfunction and subsequent
crash of a large airliner, assuming numerous
casualties. The simulation tested the
coordinated response of 19 distinct groups
of responders, involving 250 individual
participants.
THE CONNEXALL SOLUTION
The challenge of providing a safe and secure
dispatch system prompted the Azores
Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service to
identify a better solution.
Other requirements included:
• Automating the emergency notifi cation
process in real time
• Integrating new technology without
complicating responder workflow
• Providing a safe and secure dispatch
system
• Comprehensive management reporting
CONNEXALL RESULTS SUMMARY
Connexall gives the Azores Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service the ability to deliver urgent messages to virtually any device - at the click of a mouse.
Other benefits that the Emergency Management team realized from their custom-built Connexall solution:
- Graphic notifi cation to the right people with a simple double-click. Each event - storms, hazardous material spills, etc - has a unique icon, customized list of recipients and escalation process.
- Response tracking and automatic escalation
mean that manual tracking and callbacks - and
potential human error - is a thing of the past. - The dispatcher can notify any number of teams in real time and track the acknowledgement status for more than one event simultaneously.
- Drastic reduction in emergency notifi cation time by automating processes.
- Dispatcher only sees pre-specifi ed call points, increasing
confi dentiality and security. - Intuitive, user-friendly, click and drag interface
minimizes the need for training and the time lag
between installation and roll-out. - Records and reports notifi cation time, acknowledgement status, escalation levels, devices, responses etc.
WHY CONNEXALL?
- Simplify the dispatching process...automating it completely!
- Drastically reduce total emergency notifi cation time.
- Reduces incidence of human error.
- Restrict dispatcher call points = confi dentiality and security.
- Intuitive, user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI).
- Records and reports notifi cation time, acknowledgement status, escalation levels, devices, responses etc.
- Provides secure notifi cation special response teams in real time.
- Enables emergency management department to
improve collaboration with EMS, EMP, Police and
other emergency departments during event.
"Certain aspects of this exercise
went extraordinarily well, for
example,
the architecture built
to support these operations"
- Pedro Carvalho,
President of Azores Regional Civil Protection
and Fire Service
